Absolutely zero luck in a defeat to Dallas: Stars beat Capitals 1-0

The Washington Capitals ventured west for a quick one-game road trip to meet the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night. With captain Alex Ovechkin still looking for career goal number 900, could the Caps bounce back from a very bad loss on home ice to the Ottawa Senators?

No scoring from either team within the first 20 minutes. Tyler Seguin got some help from Martin Fehervary to put the Stars up 1-0 on a power play.

Stars beat Capitals 1-0.

• Very even first period and a good start to a road game, especially after getting demolished at Capital One Arena over the weekend. I didn’t love how the last 30 seconds of the first frame went, but Logan Thompson was up to the task on a couple of really tough deflection saves. The penalty kill also looked very good.
• Now, the Capitals were made to use their penalty kill because the referees decided to buy two blatant dives in a row from the Stars. I am zero percent shocked that one of tonight’s referees was Francis Charron, aka evil TJ Oshie. The NHL needs to penalize simulation more often.
• Can we talk about ESPN for a second? I think the general idea of the Frozen Frenzy stuff is quite cool, but the way they seem to have no backup plan for games that go to overtime probably isn’t great. The network is very lucky that Alex Ovechkin did not score number 900 while the game was on ESPNews or in split screen with that Penguins-Flyers shootout. Also, can we get an honest listing of the puck drop time? 8:50 pm is not 8:30 pm.

• Really excellent second period overall as the Capitals hemmed the Stars in on countless shifts. They just could not buy a bounce, and Jake Oettinger was really aggressive and out on top of his crease to make some key stops. The process was great, though. Far, far, far better than in the previous two games.
• Also, did I say two dives in a row earlier? Well, you can make it three after Radek Faksa threw himself to the ice early in the second. Unfortunately, the Stars actually put a goal away on the ensuing power play this time. The refs then clearly gave the Capitals a make-up call soon after and then put their whistles away entirely when the Caps started dominating play. Love that.
• The power play is still an issue. The mini hot streak they went on is starting to look like it was a mirage. I hate the two-defensemen look and would really like to see more speed injected into that top unit. Just needs to be better all around.
• Hendrix Lapierre looked phenomenal to me all night. He rang the crossbar and was just all around the puck and using his elite skating to his advantage. Really would love to see him just take off from here and lock down a spot on this team.

• The Capitals kept the Stars without a shot for over 23 minutes in the second and third periods. You can’t do much else. They just had zero puck luck. Nothing you can do.
• Three posts, three times beating Oettinger. The hockey gods were taking some sort of revenge for something.
• Logan Thompson is one of the best goaltenders in the league. In his 50th career appearance with the Capitals, he just needed some run support and got beaten by a brutal deflection from his own defenseman.

The Capitals will fly back home and have a full day off on Wednesday. They’ll next be back in action at Capital One Arena against the New York Islanders on Friday night.